Abberley is a parish in rural West Worcestershire situated within the Malvern Hills District Council boundaries. It is an approximate rectangle, 6 miles long and up to a mile wide. The ridge of Abberley Hill forms the long eastern boundary.
Abberley Hill is formed of an overturned thrust fold of Silurian rocks capped with a breccia of Permian age. On the west side of the hill, the sandstones, clays and coal seams of The Wyre Forest coalfield provided employment in extraction of coal from the Middle Ages until the late 1920s and clay for making bricks and tiles from at least the late fifteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century. At the east end of the parish, the underlying clays and sandstones are of Devonian age.
The settlement pattern of Abberley like many parishes in Worcester dates from at least Saxon times and is and remains a dispersed one with houses grouped around farmsteads or greens, Town Farm and Elms Green attest to this style of settlement. Recent local history projects have identified evidence of both pre-historic people and Romans living in the area as well as continuous occupation from the Medieval period to the present day. Farming remains the dominant land use, orchards are far less plentiful than they had been but hops are now being grown again.
Within the parish, a hunting lodge and its associated deer park were given to a favourite of the William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings but at times reverted to the Crown, the last hereditary owners, the Bromleys, sold the estate in 1836. Abberley Lodge was demolished and a new house named Abberley Hall was built by the Moilliets, a Birmingham banking family, the estate was later owned by John Joseph Jones, an Oldham industrialist and banker. After 1910, the Jones heirs chose not to live in Abberley and from 1912, the building has housed Abberley Hall preparatory school. Former pupils include a number of MPs including Geoffrey Howe, later Lord Abaravon and Philip Dunne the sitting MP for South Shropshire. Abberley’s other grand house, The Elms was owned by the Sir Richard and Lady Brooke from 1926 until 1946. Sir Richard established a successful racing stables; King Salmon, his most famous horse won the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown in 1934 and twice came second in the Derby. Training race horses continues elsewhere in the parish to this day. The Elms later became one of the first English country house hotels and is still operates as a hotel and spa today.
Abberley has had a village school since 1717, the school has occupied its current building since 1859. Abberley Post Office was run from rooms in private houses until moving into the Village Stores, Abberley’s remaining village shop, in the twenty first century. The Manor Arms, the remaining pub, was originally called the Bromley Arms. Abberley retains two Church of England churches, but did also have a Methodist Chapel. Owen’s Garage continues to provide a car repair business, but no longer sells fuel or operates the local bus service as it did in the twentieth century.
Worcestershire County Council utilises local contractors to assist us with snow clearing across the County. We’re always looking to increase these, as the service they can provide to us is invaluable, especially in assisting in clearing roads to local isolated communities during severe weather. Contractors are assigned to specific zones, based on where they live. […]
CLICK HERE for Abberley Parish Neighbourhood Development Plan Design Guidance
Late Summer Shindig Abberley Parish Council would like to send a huge thank you to all those who participated in the Late Summer Shindig. The brilliant band of George Buchanan, fantastic food from The Crunchy Pig and delicious drink from Magic Bars and, last but certainly not least, Paddy Levack, complete with bagpipes, contributed to […]
Apply for a Community Grant up to £20,000 funded by the European Social Fund Worcestershire County Council are currently delivering a Social Fund that enables small businesses or charities support inactive individual’s back into further education or employment. You must be a small business with 49 employees or less or a charitable organisation. There are […]
Malvern Hills District Council is currently undertaking its annual Residents’ Survey, which gives people an opportunity to tell us what really matters to them and what they think of local services, including asking what they think our priority actions should be moving forwards. In previous years the survey has been carried out on our behalf […]
Abberley Parish Clean-Up Saturday 12th October 10am to 1pm Start at the village green Abberley Parish Council are organising a village tidy-up. Help us to give your village an autumn clean! CLICK HERE for Tidy-Up poster • Meet at the village green at 10am to collect equipment • Rubbish to be deposited at Village Hall […]
Abberley Neighbourhood Plan Progress Report. Councillors Knight and Andrew met with David Clarke of MHDC to brief him on progress to date, share with him the three documents created so far and talk about next steps. This meeting flagged up the current piece of work by MHDC on village categorisation, progress by MHDC on the […]
Please click on link below to access the Abberley Housing Design Guidelines. ABBERLEY PARISH NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN HOUSING DESIGN GUIDELINES
Malvern Hills and Wychavon Neighbourhood Watch Together event on Wednesday 25 September 5-8pm Leigh and Bransford Memorial Hall Sherridge Road, Leigh Sinton, Malvern WR13 5DE. This drop-in market place event is an opportunity for Parish Councils and residents from across Malvern Hills and Wychavon to find out how to go about creating a successful […]
